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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Sustainability and Inclusiveness: Role of HRD Professionals

Sustainability and
Inclusiveness: 17th National HRD Conference

T. V. Rao

The conference is over yesterday. I returned after
full three days of attendance. I am lucky to be at this and the last two other conferences
at Hyderabad and Bangalore after missing the much talked about earlier conferences
at Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai conferences. The themes are very appropriate for
the times. HR people should be concerned about sustainability issues in the
society, organizations, teams and institutions. NHRDN is always ahead in many
ways. The first conference was on Alternative strategies of HRD. The next recognised
the importance of workers and workmen and has organised the Delhi conference
which was attended by a large number of people including union leaders and
workmen’s representatives. This is also the place where all great academicians
like Ishwar Dayal, Manohar Nadkarni,
Udai Pareek, Somnath, Rolf Lynton, Pradip Khandwalla, D M Pestonjee, M B
Athreya, B L Mahewari, T V Rao

(see: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=141741082513548&set=t.100000329719397&type=3&theater
), After quite some time the Kolkata conference also invited a good number of academics
like N M Agarwal, MG Jomon, Asha Bhandarkar, S Ramnarayan, Fr Abraham, Fr. O.
Masacarnes, Radhakrishnan Pillai, Gautam Sinha, Pranabesh Ray etc. IIMs, XLRI,
TISS, XLRI, SIBM, TERI, ISB, NLS, and
IMI etc. are represented in some form or the other. I feel unless there is a
good presence of academics along with the practitioners any such conference will not be complete.

Why
Sustainability:

The session by Leena Srivastava and Paranjoy Guha provides
compelling answers to justify the theme. Our common future is to face shortage
of water, energy, land, clean air and perhaps many more things. Unless we take
care of it from now our children are going to have a bleak future. Who can be concerned
about the future than the HR professionals. One lesson for me form the conference
is that HR professionals must read, understand and educate others on the future
of this planet and how world’s haves and particularly organizational elite are
contributing to the brewing crisis. An understanding of this will totally
change the role they are playing and focus their attention on part of the
issues they should focus. It is not enough to take care of the current human resources
but also pay attention to future of people everywhere. How organizations
exploit the planet for their own good and how to live and let live are important
concerns. For a change HR Managers also should care for not only people inside
but also outside who are their customers or potential customers. This needs understanding
and right ethical values. Sustainability at societal level involves treating
our planet and fellow human beings with respect.

Lesson for HR managers is also in choosing the right
CSR activities. Government of India has provided ample opportunities for HR to
influence sustainability through CSR.

Sustainability
at Organizational Level:

The latest issue of the NHRDN is
devoted to building sustainable organizations and the role of HR. It begins
with the following quote by NRN.

“Organisations
become institutions by transcending individuals and following sustainable
practices. This can happen only when companies put long term goals ahead of
short term interests. Businesses should not only have profitable growth but
must also address environmental, social, and people aspects to ensure business
sustainability. I am glad that National HRD network is making efforts to create
champions of sustainable practices and dedicating an issue to this important
topic.” Narayana Murthy, Infosys Limited.

There are many practices discussed in the
conference. The book prepared for the conference edited by NM Agarwal, M G
Jomon, Chandrima Banerjee and Biju Varkey presents a good view of the possible organizational
practices. The book released on the first day and summarised at length by Prof.
N M Agarwal has 22 papers selected from over 50 of the papers received. The
various sessions discussed issues like Diversity and inclusion, legal frameworks
for inclusion and sustainability, womentoring, and the role of inclusiveness in
building sustainable organizations. The second day was devoted to issues like
the role of workforce and work life balance, employee engagement in building
sustainable organization. The sessions also dealt with creating harmony at the
workplace by addressing the aspirations of the bottom of the pyramid. The
Conference very appropriately felicitated Achyuta Samantha the founder of KISS
and KITS who is training over 20,000 tribal children from KG to PG and bringing
out the talent in them. The third day was focused on sustainability at the
individual level.

On the whole the conference drew attention of HR professionals
to an area of great significance.

What make NHRDN Sustainable and is
it Inclusive:

At the end of the conference I asked myself
the above question and circulated the question among a few others. I have a
view and I am not sure how many share this view. My view is:

It is sustainable or sustained itself so far because
of its purpose and 4 Cs: its
constitution, culture, capability and commitment of a few of the office bearers
who relentlessly work for it. HRD Network is a body meant to take forward HRD
movement in the country and HRD is defined broadly to include all sectors. Its
constitution requires change of leaders every two years and at the same time
practicing HRD principles. It provides scope for new office bearers to play
leadership roles. And use as well as build their competencies. Leading and
managing not for profit organizations is not the same as leading and managing
profit driven companies. Here the responsibility and accountability is higher
and you have to generate your own resources. The incentive for work is in the
work itself and not in performance incentives. There is no hierarchy. The culture
is OCTAPACE as this is a charitable
society and Institution. Corporate sector principles and attitudes don’t work
well here though one may try them out and learn from experience. The commitment
of a few office bearers from the beginning is responsible for its sustainability.
The culture which prevents a few people from becoming powerful for all time to
come and form power centres is another reason. Perceptions may always vary and
if there are perceptions it may partly be because of the nature of its members
not following the OCTAPACE values and particularly that of Transparency and Confrontation. As Founder President I
tried my best to point out when things did not go in tune with the dreams we had
and the culture we tried to build. I am sure it was appreciated in the long run
though not at the time I made the comments. I have also followed the philosophy
I learnt from Ravi Matthai, Vikram Sarabhai, Udai Pareek to build institutions and
move and not possess institution. I think this applies to all Presidents we had.
All of them moved on from dictating terms to committed work after their terms
as office bearers were over. I like to give full credit to each of the office bearers
and particularly the Presidents and other team
members: Starting with MRR Nair, Udai Pareek, Rajesh Vidya Sagar,
Debashis and Arvind Pande until 2000 and subsequently Arvind, Santrupt,
Dwarakanath, Rajan, and Siddiqui recently. It also is applicable to many regional
Presidents secretaries and other chapter presidents.

Is it Inclusive?

My answer is: Very Much. However it could be and
need to be more inclusive. From beginning it included all categories of members.
There is no qualification required to b e member of NHRDN. The gates are open
to anyone interested. Its inclusiveness covers mangers, teachers, government employees
at all levels, NGOs, students etc. with
no restrictions. It has had many seminars dealing with youth, women’s issues, various
HR systems, IR issues ( one of the round tables was devoted to the role of
Unions in HRD and Union leaders participated in it) and HRD in government etc.

It is also inclusive of high performers and low
performers. It is so inclusive it continues to carry some chapters, chapter presidents
and some office bearers who do nothing
after getting elected..? This extent of inclusiveness sometimes does more
damage to NHRDN. But NHRDN hope that they will realise some day and contribute to
NHRDN....?

2 comments:

NHRDN is really creating waves in this direction. My best wishes...in the collective endeavor in Sustainability and Inclusiveness. Sustainability and Inclusiveness for HRD professionals is a great thing to follow and practice. NHRDN is always the first and will remain first of its kind in taking this HRD movement forward.Thanks to the great academicians who have founded it and all those who are keeping the spirit of HRD alive... Thank you T.V.Rao Sir for sharing this with us.Warm regards,asn.